Photos

2009 Year in pictures

A crowd of onlookers gather outside the historic Federal Hall where President Obama is speaking in the heart of Wall Street in New York City on Sept. 14, 2009. Obama, marking a year since Lehman Bros. collapsed, urged financial firms not to fight regulatory reform and urged Congress to pass his proposals by the end of the year. Calls for more financial regulation heightened after risky investments and bad loans led to a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry.

Trader Theodore Weisberg smiles as he wears a hat from March 1999, the first time the Dow rose above 10,000, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 14, 2009. The Dow pierced the 10,000 level on Oct. 14 for the first time in a year.

Sonja and Ray Montoya speak to a financial counselor with the Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America (NACA) during the Save the Dream event on Oct. 16, 2009, in Daly City, Calif. Thousands of people lined up for the event to get assistance with restructuring their mortgages to avoid foreclosure or an auction sale. NACA held events throughout the U.S. as more than 180,000 people sought help with their home loans.

Paul Mikel, owner of FastCashGoldParties.com, checks out a piece of gold jewelry on Oct. 30, 2009, in Hialeah, Fla. As the price of gold remains high, the company is setting up Tupperware-like parties to buy consumers' unwanted gold.

Bernard Madoff leaves U.S. Federal Court in New York City after a hearing regarding his bail on Jan. 14, 2009. Madoff eventually was sentenced to 150 years in prison for his $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

At right, a photo of attorney Scott Rothstein, left, and Republican Florida Gov. Charlie Crist hangs in the law offices of Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler in Fort Lauderdale. Rothstein, who lived lavishly and courted both politicians and celebrities, was arrested Dec. 1, 2009, on federal charges that he operated a $1 billion investment scheme using faked legal settlements.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was named Time magazine's Person of the Year for 2009.

Harvey Lesser, 58, struggles to get into his car after an eviction team removed household belongings from his apartment on Dec. 11, 2009, in Boulder, Colo. Lesser, an unemployed software developer with chronic health problems, said he stopped paying rent after draining his savings. Evictions and foreclosure rates nationwide soared in 2009, as millions of unemployed Americans were unable to pay their bills.

Bidders' assistant Jeff Johnson keeps the auctioneer informed of bids by using arm and body motions at a foreclosed-home auction run by Real Estate Disposition at the Javits Center in New York on March 8, 2009.

Miriam Siegman, a victim of disgraced Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff, celebrates as she leaves Federal Court in New York City after a hearing on March 12, 2009. Prosecutors said they were seeking to recover $177 billion that Madoff is alleged to have received from clients over two decades, some of which he then paid out to other clients to create the illusion of high investment returns.

AIG CEO Edward Liddy shakes hands with members of Code Pink who were at a subcommittee hearing of the House Financial Services Committee to speak out against AIG before Liddy testified on March 18, 2009.

Ted Lewis, owner of Ted's Master Antenna Service in Los Angeles, installs and adjusts a high-definition antenna that receives both high-band VHF and UHF television channels before the switch to digital TV signals on June 12, 2009.

Orange County Sheriff's Deputy Dan Mendoza arrives to enforce an eviction order on a foreclosed home in Fullerton, Calif., on June 18, 2009. California is one of the places hit the hardest by foreclosures as hundreds of thousands of homeowners default on their mortgages.

A woman shops for a car at Springfield Auto Mart in Springfield, Vt., on July 27, 2009, while a car in a dumpster serves as a visual promotion for the government's cash-for-clunkers program. Before it was extended, the popular program ran out of money as car shoppers flocked to dealerships to take advantage of the rebates.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs during a special event Sept. 9, 2009, in San Francisco. He announced a new version of iTunes, new pricing for iPod Touch music players and a new version of the iPod Nano with video capabilities. Jobs was in the news throughout the year as he struggled with health issues. It was announced in June that he had a liver transplant.

Operations manager Abel Rivera, at the Courtesy Chevrolet dealership in Phoenix, matches keys with clunkers traded in by customers during the last day of the cash-for-clunkers program on Aug. 24, 2009. Americans swamped auto dealerships during the final hours of the government's popular program that offered rebates of up to $4,500 to trade in older gas guzzlers.

Homeowner Sam Pollard, left, hugs Bruce Marks, CEO of non-profit organization Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America (NACA), after Pollard's bank agreed to drop his mortgage payments from $2,800 a month to $1,100 a month, at a NACA event in Los Angeles on Sept. 28, 2009. NACA provides the opportunity for borrowers to meet with counselors and bank representatives, giving struggling homeowners the chance to renegotiate loan terms and prevent foreclosure.

The new 2010 Volkswagen Beetle convertible Final Edition is displayed during the Los Angeles Auto Show on Dec. 2, 2009. Volkswagen is halting production of the New Beetle, the popular, iconic little car that took the country by storm a decade ago. It will make 3,000 more Final Edition versions. The New Beetle will be replaced in 2011 by "something Beetlish," says VW spokesman Steve Keyes.